By Umaru Shehu ,
Minna
Christians in Niger State have condemned the major political political parties in the state for ignoring their demand to pick Christians as the running mates of their governorship candidates in the 2019 election.
They also said that they would soon commence mobilization of members to be actively involved in politics and politicking to end relegation to the background.
It would be recalled that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had appealed to all the registered political parties in Niger State to carry everyone along by ensuring that Moslem aspirants have a Christian as his running mate or deputy and vice versa.
The Christians during the All Niger State Christian Stakeholders meeting at the CAN state secretariat, David Mark road, Minna, expressed worry that their demand for a Moslem/Christian joint ticket in the 2019 governorship election were rebuffed.
The meeting, which has in attendance, Christian opinion leaders, heads of established Church denominations, Christians in Politics, Christian elder statesmen/women, head of other Christian interest groups said, ‘‘Deliberate exclusion’’ in the affairs of the state would no longer be acceptable.
The group wondered why Christians after contributing to the socio-economic and political growth of the state they were always excluded in decision-making and governance.
Niger State CAN Chairman, Rev. Matthias Echioda, had said that the stakeholders’ meeting was to appraise the political situation, the level of awareness among Christians and the way forward.
Echioda reminded stakeholders at the meeting: “CAN issued a statement calling on all the political parties to let us respect the two major religions by having Moslem/Christian joint ticket, but by what we have seen so far none of them listened or considered our demand”.
He also appealed to political parties to see it as very expedient to field Christian-Moslem joint ticket in the interest of peace, equity, fairness and justice for all.
